Ground forces in DA

Some questions and an idea

from GalCiv2 Forums
From the IGN preview: "In terms of ground forces, barracks can be built on worlds and will pump out up to 10 military divisions for use in planet invasions."

This was the most interesting thing I saw in any of the previews. Does this mean that invasions will no longer be performed by hordes of citizens (presumably civilians) dumped onto transports, but instead by actual military? What about the defensive side - are planets still going to be defended by billions of (also presumably civilian) residents, or do we now have to create military units as defenders too?

If we get military attackers and defenders, it would clear up one of the weirder elements of GalCiv2 - the genocides that are necessary every time an invasion takes place. Military attackers and defenders could simply do battle without having to wipe out the population of a planet. At the same time, it would be rediculous to allow an invasion to succeed simply because a planet didn't have any military defenders available. Perhaps a certain percentage of a planet's population could be included in the defense (as guerrilla troops, local resistance, etc.) with that percentage increased through the research of new techs. For those feeling more genocidal, successful invaders could have the option of wiping out a planet's population (perhaps with some loss of improvements or PQ). Any thoughts?



9,895 views 14 replies
Reply #1 from GalCiv2 Forums Top
I could have written the same.

I have never understood why wiping out a planet's population via planetary bombardement is considered genocide while killing everybody with ground forces is not... genocide is genocide...

I would love to see something like a standing army concept, transporters that can be used again and would also like to conquer planets AND population!

What about the super-ability "telepathic"... I never managed to use it in MOO2, but it is a cool ability - conquering with brains!   
Reply #2 from GalCiv2 Forums Top
I would like that, too. I also have my own idea on the subject: invations will inevitably kill a certain percentage of the civilian population, but certain tactics cause more casualties than others. Traditional and Information Warfare will have the smallest number of casualties, will others will have very high values, in proportion (or at lease within the same trend) as the advantage recieved.

But even without this, the barracks will add a lot to the game.
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Reply #3 from GalCiv2 Forums Top
I'm definately interested in seeing a clarification of what this is about
Reply #4 from GalCiv2 Forums Top
Would this also possibly mean we could see planetary bombardment? To wipe the surface clean of civilians and military forces? You know a lot of times i don't want to "invade" and "capture" a world, i just want to bomb it to hell and back to either make it unpopulated or just to cripple it's population and improvements. In my view this is one aspect i've seriously ALWAYS been craving from GCII.

>>>really hoping for planetary bombardment... #1 hope for DA<<<
Reply #5 from GalCiv2 Forums Top
It's certainly something I'm very interested in seeing, and was something I hoped for from DA but had basically thought only likely to be implemented in GalCiv3 years from now. It's never made much sense to me that Farmer Juan could one day be happily sitting on his front porch having a siesta, only for some government type to turn up, bundle him into a car to the spaceport, stick him on a ship and a week or so later give him a gun, shove him out onto an alien world and he's suddenly a lean, mean killing machine bent on exterminating all life on the planet.

Reply #6 from GalCiv2 Forums Top
To any Devs:

Is there any way we might get a snippit of info on all of this? I know things need to be kept secret and all, but maybe if it's not going to happen you could at least say,
"don't expect that for DA".

Take planetary bombardment for instance, if it's NOT going to be in DA could you at least tell us not to expect that from hence forth?

I'm not looking to run in and try to change your minds, you guys know how many people want what and so forth, so i'm not going to be whining about not having it, i just wanna know in some kind of "official" terms if it's surely not going to be included.
Reply #8 from GalCiv2 Forums Top
The groundcombat in GC2 was weak.If it's true about this part expanded it would fantastic.Confirm?
Reply #9 from Stardock Forums Top
One way to get around/discourage the tactic of using initial small invasions using high damage (potential) means just to reduce population and then use a main invasion force using standard tactics in order to preserve improvements and PQ is to immediately award soldiering bonuses to individual worlds that successfully resist invasions - so much for EACH invasion repelled. After all, practice makes perfect! You might have it be a decaying bonus after a period of time, but not go away entirely - war plans and lessons learned can be pulled out and dusted off.
Reply #10 from GalCiv2 Forums Top
This would also add very nice strategic depth since one race couldn't just go stomping across the Galaxy, wiping out races as it goes, it would actually have to wait for its military levels to catch up with it again.

But what if a planet doesn't have a barracks, is it going to be undefended, or is the army going to be equally divided among the empire?
Reply #11 from GalCiv2 Forums Top
This would be a fast and simple solution to expanding depth in the area, good job SD. I like it! If you guys ever do MP this would be perfect for that.
Reply #12 from GalCiv2 Forums Top
But what if a planet doesn't have a barracks, is it going to be undefended, or is the army going to be equally divided among the empire?


Conceivably, if a planet didn't have barracks (or if troops had been moved off-world) a certain percentage of the civilian population could be pressed into service. Of course, these unlucky folks should be significantly less effective than trained troops.

Reply #13 from Stardock Forums Top
This would indeed be a nice enhancement to the game!

How about:
- allow any percentage of the population to be conscripted, anytime
- conscripts cost money, instead of generating net income
- troop effectiveness increases over time spent on land (no training effect while on board transports), from virtually useless to Marine efficiency
Reply #14 from GalCiv2 Forums Top
OP is in the right tracks and I really hope ground combat gets some work on DA. The battling hordes of citizens seems very shallow and hurried dev decision.

This would make a nice mega event too. Conquered race rebels agains their oppressor and forms their civilizationg again